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Bait and switch article of the year. If I was linked to svpply, I would give him a phone call and a stern conversation would commence.
I do appreciate the humility and openness.
Nothing says bubble more than this:
A guy with no experience, no vision (at least none he's shared -- perhaps the entire article is some kind of viral PR experiment), gets funded!
I always considered myself to be confident, and self-assured (not obnoxious, just confident)...but starting a company is a completely different cup of tea. I have both a Computer Science degree + an MBA. I learned Rails on my own and I thought that would be the hard part. Just to learn that transitioning from hardcore product development to sales & marketing is even trickier than I thought.
When you think about all the promises you have made to people, and things you have sold in various ways, it's perfectly natural to get self-doubt....especially given that things will NOT happen exactly the way you planned. This. Happens. A. LOT.
Self-doubt is one of the most unspoken about aspects of starting a company and I am glad that Ben has so courageously spoken about it so publicly.
If you have never done a startup before, nothing can prepare you for the experience fully. I read every PG essay, most of Founders at Work, almost every other bio/story of most if not all of the tech founders from Fairchild Semiconductors to Facebook, watched dozens - if not a hundred+ - of Mizergy interviews, understand finance & economics (I can explain the differences between a Collaterized Debt Obligation & a Credit Default Swap), also know most of the fine points of the standard term sheet (including to focus less on valuation on more on things like liquidation preferences, etc.), know enough legalese to understand most contracts, I built teams from scratch, recruited people to work with me on a project bigger than myself but under-resourced, hell even worked at another startup before...but having done all of that...I still wake up every morning and there are MANY things that I am tackling for the first time - and it makes me doubt myself.
Most people won't talk about it, but I think we need to start being real with ourselves - for the health of the startup community. Especially for those of us that don't have investors or many mentors, or don't live in the Valley, or are not YC-alums.
So Thank You Ben. For being so honest. For being so real.
It's a shame so many of the comments here are criticizing this guy for not lying more.
Witholding the truth isn't lying.
Dishonesty is dishonesty no matter how you cut it.
Developer here - If I were about to interview for a dev job at svpply I would surely find this blog post and promptly cancel my interview. No way am I going to go to work for a guy who has no experience doing what he is tasked to do. This is kinda scary.
If I was applying for a job at svpply, I'd be happy that CEO knows what he doesn't know: it's much better then someone thinking they know everything and not having a clue.
If I would be an investor in this guy's company, I'd be really pissed off.
Bubble Alert! Nothing says bubble more than this: A guy with no experience, no vision (at least none he's shared -- perhaps the entire article is some kind of viral PR experiment), gets funded!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Witholding the truth isn't lying.
This is an attitude I've never agreed with. Say you're an investor. Would you rather this CEO put on an I-know-what-I'm-doing face, and imply that he's got this all under control? Or would you rather he be upfront about his lack of experience but determination to get it right by learning and surrounding himself with smart people that can help him? Maybe he fails, maybe he doesn't. At least you know what you're gettin…